Thursday, July 10, 2014

Ellen Meiksins Wood, Empire of Capital

What does imperialism mean in the absence of colonial conquest and imperial rule?

Capitalism
makes possible a new form of domination by purely economic means,
argues Ellen Meiksins Wood. So, surely, even the most seasoned White
House hawk would prefer to exercise global hegemony in this way, without
costly colonial entanglements. Yet, as Wood powerfully demonstrates,
the economic empire of capital has also created a new unlimited
militarism.

By contrasting the new imperialism to historical
forms such as the Roman and Spanish empire, and by tracing the
development of capitalist imperialism back to the English domination of
Ireland and on the British Empire in America and India, Wood shows how
today's capitalist empire, a global economy administered by local
states, has come tom spawn a new military doctrine of war without end,
in purpose or time.